The Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), a flagship programme launched in August to provide a bank account to every family, has seen opening of 2.95 million bank accounts in last four months in the state.

Data compiled by the State Level Bankers' Committee (SLBC) shows that 29,59,918 new bank accounts have been opened till December 5 by the banks having operations in the state.

Public sector banks have opened 25,09,700 accounts while private sector lenders and regional rural banks (RRBs) have managed to open 49380 accounts and 4,00, 838 accounts respectively.

State Bank of India (SBI), the country largest lender, leads the pack with opening of 9,12,992 accounts followed by UCO Bank, the SLBC convenor, which has opened 2,97,329 accounts.

Together, the PSU banks have opened 14,71, 981 in rural areas and 10,37,719 in urban areas under the mission mode programme launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Among the private banks, HDFC Bank has opened 20425 accounts followed by Axis Bank with opening of 9903 new accounts.

The two RRBs- Odisha Gramya Banka and Utkal Grameen Bank, under the financial inclusion plan, have opened 2, 81,565 accounts and 1,19, 273 accounts respectively.

Apart from opening of accounts, other benefits of the programme include RuPay debit card, Rs one lakh accidental insurance cover and an additional Rs 30,000 life insurance cover for those opening bank accounts before January 26, 2015. The target includes reaching 75 million unbanked families across the country by January 26, 2015.

It may be noted that the Department of financial services under Union ministry of finance has clarified that the facilities available for the accounts under PMJDY would also be available to the existing accounts. The existing account holders can avail the facilities of the scheme by submitting an application to the concerned bank branch.

Households in more than 3800 villages in Odisha according to the 2011 census, do not have bank facilities. The percentage of households having banking services ranges from 0.1 per cent to 9.9 per cent. Similarly, there are 10801 villages where people availing banking facility is within the range of 10 to 29 per cent and in at least 10575 villages, percentage of house holds with bank accounts is within 49 per cent. In the entire state, only 1300 villages had 100 per cent bank accounts.